Gita Rahasya -Tilak 164

Gita Rahasya -Tilak

CHAPTER VII THE KAPILA SAMKHYA PHILOSOPHY OR THE CONSIDERATION OF THE MUTABLE AND THE IMMUTABLE (KAPILA SAMKHYA-SASTRA OR KSARAKSARA-VICARA) Even modern natural scientists have laid down the proposition that the gross elements and the potential energy in all things are permanent, and whatever changes of form anything may go through, yet in the end the sum total of all material concomi- tants and of all potential energy in the world is always the same. For instance, even if we see a lamp burning and the oil disappearing, yet the atoms of oil are not totally destroyed, but continue to exist in the form of soot, smoke, or other subtle components; and, if all these subtle components are taken together and weighed, their weight will be the same as the total weight of the oil and of all those other matters from the air which were mixed with it when it was burning; and it has now been proved that the same rule applies to potential energy. But although these two propositions of modern physics and of the Samkhya philosophy may be apparently similar, yet it must not be forgotten that the proposition of the Samkhya philosophy has reference only to the fact of one thing being created out of another thing, that is to say, it refers specifically to the theory of Causes and Effects, whereas the proposition of modern physics is much more comprehensive. The very important difference between these two proposi- tions which has now been proved by actual experiments and mathematics, is that no quality in any product can arise out of any quality which was not in the cause, and what is more, that the material elements and the potential energy in the causes are in no way destroyed by reason of their having been transformed into products, and that the sum total of the weights of the material elements and the potential energy of any product in its various states is always the same, and is neither increased nor decreased. Looking at the matter from this point of view, it will be seen that the propositions which have been given at the commencement of the second chapter Of the Bhagavadgita. such as : " nasato vidyate bhavah". I e., "that which is not, will never come into existence " etc., have greater similarity with the proposition of modern physics, than with the mere satkaryamda which deals with causes and products, though they apparently look like satkaryavada. The purport of the above quotation from the Chandogyopanisad is also the same. In short, the doctrine of of satkaryavada is acceptable to the Vedanta philosophy. Nevertheless, according to the Monistic (advaita) Vedanta philosophy, this proposition does not apply to anything beyond the qualified (saguna) universe, and how the qualified universe appears to have come into exsistence out of the qualityless (nirguna) must be explained in some other way. This theory of the Vedanta will be fully dealt with later on in the chapter on Metaphysics (adhyatma). As in this place we have to consider only how far the Samkhya philosophers have gone, we will take for granted the doctrine of satkaryavada and see how the Samkhya philosophers have made use of it in dealing with the question of the Mutable and the Immutable.